Classic English Literature
The classical mythological stories and beliefs of religions, great heroes, Gods, monsters, sins, right and wrong doings, souls, among others have been an inspiration for many poets and authors. Many books have been written on how God would like to have his children live in a holy fashion, virtuous all their lives and enter the gates of heaven. The fear of being thrown in hell and being cleansed for unholy, immoral and sinful acts are also described in many books.
Dante’s Divine Comedy written when he was exactly half way through life, at the age of 35 is also a story of how a soul once having separated from the flesh of the body, goes through the Inferno, the purgatory and finally reaches the paradise.
The metaphorical inner urge expressed by Dante is fully aligned with the traditional Christian beliefs of the fourteenth century, and shows an intense urge for a human being to live a pious and holy life. In the work Divine Comedy, Dante has set out imaginary conversations between the sins that happen on earth and the punishments that are handed down on the soul in hell. There is almost a one to one correspondence of these. For instance, souls of fortune tellers are forced to move forward with their heads turned backward. This is absolutely opposite of what they attempted while on earth – being able to look forward, and in hell, they are devoid of this and are asked to move.
This creates an impressive imagery and also gives extraordinary symbolic power, all pointing to the beliefs held in that era, pointing to God’s absolute and fair sense of justice so much so that, there is even a supposed inscription over the Gate of hell, which proclaims that God created Hell for justice, and that the purpose of hell is to be able to punish sin and all the punishments in the hell are the God’s perfection of what the sin violates. This suitability of punishing sin by God is an indicator of Dante’s message of the morality that was upheld by the papacy and Christian beliefs and practices of the 14th century.
For a 21st century reader of Divine Comedy, the punishments may seem little brute and shocking. For example, people who charge interest loans, sit beneath a rain of fire. This might seem shocking to an individual at the surface, however, at the deeper level, this is the guiding principle of balance that is clearly seen when punishments are meted out.
The balance between the sin committed on earth and the suffering that the soul must undergo to be purged. It is amply clear that greater the sin, harsher would be the punishment, thus creating a sense of balance, and this is seen in all the conversations that are there. The poem progresses from minor sins to major sins.
The poem also depicts the different regions of hell that mete out punishment to types of sins that are classified by its kind, and this is where God’s choice of punishments comes out with extreme rigidity, seemingly mechanical and absolutely impersonal. There is not compromise when God hands out his punishment. It is all a sense of balance.
Dante depicts a kind of a balance and an absolutely balanced mathematical formula in handing out punishment to the corresponding sin without any kind of favouritism or partiality to anyone.
God seems to be absolutely impersonal and of pure justice and character. Tough initially it seems that Dante has sympathy for the souls that surround him in hell, as the poem progresses, this sympathy seems to get erased. Besides, Virgil – his guide through inferno and purgatory seems to egg him on this development, which is supposedly positive.
There is a unique portrayal of divine justice that the punishment is directly proportional to the sin committed, and any form of sympathy towards this is nothing but a pure demonstration of lack of understanding of the divine will.
Inferno is seen as probably as the first taxonomy that is created to describe human sin and evil. Dante goes on to classify and judge all these sins, ostensibly on behalf of God. There are at times, contradictory positions offered in the way sins are classified.
Accepting a bribe is in the eighth circle of hell, while murder is in the sixth circle. This seems like briber is a much worse sin than murder. This is in direct contradiction with what we understand today. However, such organization is in the strict following of Christian doctrines.
The moral system as laid out by Dante has no relevance to what happens on earth or even human happiness. It is directly God’s will that is orchestred and seen in heaven. Thereby, Dante in adherence to such guiding philosophies sees that violence is a lesser evil when compared with fraud. This is because, fraud is a greater opposition with God’s will.
God wills that all human beings treat each other with love and therefore violence is against this love, while fraud is a perversion of God’s will itself. Therefore, fraud is seen as a bigger sin and evil than violence. God’s will needs no justification, and this is exactly what Dante communicates effectively in Inferno.
There is an immense importance that Dante has placed on immortality and he expresses the concept of immortality in the form of storytelling, spreading the lives through legends and legacy. Several souls seem to beg of Dante to recollect their names and tell their tales. This, they do apparently, in an effort to live forever in people’s minds as stories and memories. Dante, does not always oblige them. He says, memories of certain men and their names must serve as warnings to those on earth. While having set his own agenda of recounting tales, which is at the core of his work.
Poet keeps often repeating that there is perfect divine justice, and that punishments are meted out directly in proportion to the sins committed on earth. He occasionally even intertwines the sinners’ narratives also allowing them certain amount of immortality. One might ask, in recounting the tales of the sinners, is Dante not glorifying sinners and their sins by recounting their tales? This point of view has never been expressed explicitly in any of the critical reviews of Dante’s work.
Dante expresses and presents a beautiful viewpoint and multiple legacies in that, he is a subject of his own storytelling, in the sense that he is the story teller and he is also the subject. One of the other purposes that the Divine Comedy serves is also to immortalize Dante as a great and highly skilled story teller.
Quite a few of his subjects, the sinners die a thousand deaths, but gives himself as well as those subjects the gift of immortal life through his story. Inferno is also a reflection of political nightmarish reality of the 14th century period of history from where he was exiled, because he was patronising black Guelphs, and the Pope was antagonistic towards them, while being patronizing to white Guelphs.
Dante cleverly attributes many of the sins to the political figures who he does not agree with, and disperses them liberally across hell, while attributing all possible sins to them. Dante’s periodic setting is a few years before writing of Inferno. In this way, he cleverly predicts what would happen in the story, matching it with reality of events, in his contemporary living, thus creating a great sense of reality to what he is saying.
Dante’s predictions that were set in the story are voiced through several damned souls, creating a sense of prophecy to his narrations. He also takes a political stance that the church and the State must exist as separate powers, while one governs the spirit, the other governs the person.
The Divine Comedy definitely depicts Christian values at all different levels; however, has an equal impact of Greek and Roman traditions on its literature. The characters in the Divine Comedy have numerous mythological creatures that come from Greek and Roman tradition. He also has depictions of certain ethical places in the poem. There are references to Homer, Virgil, Lucan, and also places like Acheron River, Styx, among other references, which clearly shows the Greek and Roman influence on his literary works.
Dante’s incorporation of references to ancient materials has many reasons including that of their ability to add a dramatic perspective to the plot. He also uses these mythological plots, events, and characters to portray subsumation of these by Christianity. He does this by bringing many of the religious strands under a single umbrella, pointing to his inner quest, which he strongly advocates is necessary for all human beings.
There is extensive use of symbols in Dante’s works including many minute and prominent ones in his entire work. Most of the symbols that he uses are clearly interpretable, and each element has a position in Dante’s system of symbolism. Possibly, the most important views of symbolism in the entire poem is Dante’s treatment of sinners and the punishments meted out to them in hell. There are symbols having different meanings and applications in the entire work of Dante.
Dante’s Divine Comedy, is possibly one of the greatest Christian literary works in the history of mankind. It is a perfect allegorical tale of God’s loving justice that is meted out to those who violate his system of love and generosity with punishment meted out in hell being directly in proportion to the seriousness of their sins.
Dante’s Divine Comedy can be interpreted at different levels, and the deeper the analysis goes of this great literary work, new meanings can be further mined, and this is a direct indication of Christianity and the system of papacy as in the 14th century Florence. It is also a great work that is intensely paradoxical, in the sense that the subject and the story teller are the same.
Works Cited
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. Liveright, 2013. Print.
Keller, Werner. The Bible as History. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1956.
Spirit, Holy. “The Bible.” God, The Spirit of. Holy Bible. Newyork: Word to World corporation , 2009. 1460.
